People are getting caught dirty-handed when it comes to their hand washing habits. While individuals understand the importance of hand hygiene, actual practices don't reflect that. A study of college students found that female students washed their hands 76% of the time, while their male peers admitted to washing their hands only 57% of the time. Anderson, J. L., Warren, C. A., Perez, E., Louis, R. I., Phillips, S., Wheeler, J., & Misra, R. (2008). Gender and ethnic differences in hand hygiene practices among college students. American Journal of Infection Control, 36(5), 361-368. doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2007.09.007. One study has shown that “[a]bout 7% of the women and 14.6% of the men did not wash their hands at all, while 15.1% of the women and 35.1% of the men simply wet their hands with water.” Borchgrevink, C. P., Cha, J., & Kim, S. (2013). Hand washing practices in a college town environment. Journal of Environmental Health, 75(8), 18-24.
Research has found that hand washing is an easy, inexpensive, and effective way to prevent the spread of germs and keep people healthy. Not only people, but it also prevents cross-contamination of food in the home as well as in our food processing facilities. Handwashing: Clean Hands Save Lives. (2017 Dec. 8). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/index.html
Typically soap dispensers are either wall-mounted our counter-mounted. Wall-mounted soap dispensers require a support base which is attached to a wall. The liquid soap, or other viscous material, usually comes with a feeding tube which is placed on a holding base that is typically present on the support base. A cover usually attaches to the support base to close up the liquid soap or other viscous material. Counter-mounted dispensers require a cutout within the sink. Typically these dispensers require screwing the pump onto a soap reservoir which can be messy.
Many of these dispensers are manual, requiring a user to press a lever or pump top, potentially spreading dangerous germs and bacteria. In some instances the dispenser is automatic, but these still suffer from clogging and may be placed far from the sinks and or hand drying stations, contributing to the presence of standing water. Additionally, counter-mounted dispensers typically have low volume reservoirs which require constant filling.
Studies have found that in some situations hand sanitizer use results in a greater reduction of E. coli and fecal streptococci when compared to hand washing. Pickering, A. J., Boehm, A. B., Mwanjali, M., & Davis, J. (2010). Efficacy of Waterless Hand Hygiene Compared with Handwashing with Soap: A Field Study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 82(2), 270-278. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2010.09-0220. However, most hand commercial or public hand washing stations do not have hand sanitizer near the soap dispensers.
Drying hand using an air dryer can also contribute to bacterial contamination as compared to using towels to dry hand. One study discovered that “[j]et air and warm air dryers result in increased bacterial aerosolization when drying hands. These results suggest that air dryers may be unsuitable for use in healthcare settings, as they may facilitate microbial cross-contamination via airborne dissemination to the environment or bathroom visitors.” Best, E., Parnell, P., & Wilcox, M. (2014). Microbiological comparison of hand-drying methods: The potential for contamination of the environment, user, and bystander. Journal of Hospital Infection, 88(4), 199-206. doi:10.1016/j.jhinches2014.08.002. Furthermore, it's has been discovered that show bottoms “had the highest [percentage] of positive samples [of Clostridium difficile . . . the leading cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized adults].” Alam, M. J., Anu, A., Walk, S. T., & Garey, K. W. (2014). Investigation of potentially pathogenic Clostridium difficile contamination in household environs. Anaerobe, 27, 31-33. doi: 10.1016/j.anaerobe.2014.03.002.
In most public and commercial facilities, hand dryers or paper towel dispensers are wall-mounted in the bathroom facilities. Not only do these dryers take up additional space, but their typical low drying speed also requires a user to stand for prolonged periods of time in front of the hand dryer, potentially spreading dangerous germs and bacteria. Additionally, since most hand dryers or paper towel dispensers are away from the hand washing stations, a user has to walk away from the sink with wet hands, dripping soap and water. Even when the hand dryers are near the hand washing stations, the forceful air can blow dangerous germs and bacteria into the air if the user has not properly washed their hands.
In order to keep hands sanitary, there exists a need for a streamlined hand cleaning, drying, and sanitizing station that can be placed near a faucet, which is light and compact enough to be portable.